Sunday, November 2, 2008

Things looking bleak

Saturday night's game was a depressing state of affairs for Aggie football.

I didn't think the team would go out and beat Boise State, but I certainly expected them to go out and at least battle. Instead, they got shut out and it was bad from the start. Running the football at will? You don't teach a team to be a smashmout outfit in a week's worth of time. Chase and Chris Williams, A.J. Harris? These are the team's best players and they weren't even utilized. And what happened to Tonny Glynn? Tonny was a good player for the Aggies last year and he is barely seeing the field anymore. You go out and run the ball with a freshman in Donavan Roberts who has seen very limited action this year. What was going on out there? After the Idaho loss it would have been nice to see some fight and spunk. There was none of that on Saturday.

Hearing Hal Mumme talk about injuries as an excuse is bothersome. He played that card last year. Sorry coach, you can't do it again. Injuries are tough but they are a fact of life in college football. Past years of recruiting should have helped to patch up those holes and even with the loss of players, using it as a crutch is not the answer. People just don't want to hear it.

Mumme could have lost his job after last season. He was given another year to try to turn things around but the last two weeks have been the low point of his tenure at the school. Is a midseason dismissal realistic? It appears like the administration is apprehensive to pull the plug. Is it warranted? Yes. Football is a week-to-week business though. I think he will be on board through this week when the team hosts Hawaii. We will see what happens after that. Another loss won't help his cause though. And, at this point, it's hard picturing the Aggies winning another game this season.

It is very simple. Mummy needs to be reassigned today and a search for a New Football Coach should start tomorrow. Assign Mummy to Asst Coach of the Futbal team until his extension has been honored, or he can quit and move on. Based on the job he has done here at NMSU, he should return at least half the money he has stolen.

If it was not necessary that we have a football team to stay in the WAC, then I would say end this pathetic Football Program all together.

As for staying D1 eligible we need to cut our Home schedule to 5 games max. We need to play 2 or 3 money games each season, but keep them more regional. BYU, ASU, TT, UofA, and start building from there.

Completely agree with Teddy here. No one expected them to win but we did expect to see an improvement from the past week. And we didnt see anything. Injuries only affect you so much and you cant use that in a week to week basis. Why we ran the ball so much with a depleted line and a weak runninback is a mystery to me. Even if our line couldnt handle their pass rush we still had chance for Chase to find a receiver and let them make a play. Instead we try to "tire" them out. It was such a pathetic showing on our part and I agree with Teddy on the possibilities of us winning another game this season. Utah State look beatable until they beat Hawaii and La Tech and Fresno will be very hard to beat. Hawaii is here next week but if we couldnt beat Idaho how could we beat them? Now that basketball season is here I just hope that people dont pull the same card on Menzies if things dont go the right way. He has a young team with plenty of talent for the future, Mumme had that two years ago and we're still searching for answers.

Coach Mumme needs to be relieved of his duties as head coach ASAP.The alumni,fans,and local community have given him the vote of no confidence,and possibly the team itself.Have Mr. Dunn as HC for at least the rest of the season,if only to keep the community from totally abandoning the team & the university.

I agree with Teddy's assessment. My preference is that if the coach has emotionally and mentally signed-off then Boston should pull the trigger now. That would at least permit us to get a coach who could get some reasonable recruiting done in advance of '09. I simply won't renew next year's season tickets unless a change is made or a coach comes in who can make an immediate impact.

Additionally, I have a hard time stomaching excuses after years of the same. These coaches are paid well enough to deliver better than that. I have no problem with us being out-manned as I think was the case with both San Jose and Boise State. I do however, have a problem with us playing with no heart. The Boise State looked so much like the team that played against Utah State in last year's finale.

Lastly, we need a winner even if he comes from a lower echelon school. We cannot afford to bring in a Willingham or someone who's trying to resurrect their career. There is a psychology to both winning and losing. The mind-set must change here, and I commend the man who can come in and make that happen, but I also think it's doable!

No way Boston admists his mistake and cans Mumme right now. No way. That would mean HE made a mistake with the hire and there is no way Boston is ever going to admit to making a mistake. Boston thinks he has all the answers and all of us around here are idiots.

The football program needs to be brining in money to drive the train for the rest of the athletic department. It isn't happening and the other teams are taking the short end of the deal, which will just end up making them all bad here real soon. Wake up people, this department is in a world of hurt right now. Drop the football program and go back to the Big West conference.

I've talked with several coaches over there and the message they keep hearing is "win, but you can't spend any money." Thats no way to run programs. We have very unrealistic expectations being put on some of our coaches and our football program is making it very difficult on them.

I love football and I want to see it doing well. Will it? Can it? The answer is to bring in a head football coach who is much like Reggie Theus was. A guy who can get out in the community with his personality and get people enthused about it. But, to do that you are going to need money and there lies the problem.

To the guy worried about Menzies dont be, he was a great hire and everyone knows that. Also we may be young but we will be in the running for BACK to BACK to BACK WAC champs. Mark my words. We just need the fan support, its up to Las Cruces to show up. These kids have endless amounts of talent. FIRE HAL MUMME NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Even the most loyal, head in the cloud Aggie fan who were advocating for Mumme to have another year last year are calling for his head(I'm talking about myself). Lets just get it over with . Maybe JLD can light a fire under our boys and get them a couple of more victories.

Hal Mumme enjoys ranting about our injury-prone Aggies…he should be ashamed of himself. Allow me to refocus everyone (including Mumme) with a real-life example: the Air Force Academy. By all significant measures, they are a "small school" with average players and are a team that's plagued with injuries year-in and year-out (because they ALWAYS field smaller players than EVERY team they face in the MWC). Coach Troy Calhoun was hired as AF head coach in 2007. He brings with him an attitude and work-ethic that demands excellence. His players respect him. He's a no-nonsense leader that inspired a team that finished 4-8 the previous season to a 9-3 record (of key note is that this was done with the same core personnel as the 2006 team) and an invitation to the Armed Forces Bowl (they ultimately lost to an exceptionally talented Cal team, 36-42). Again, this was a one-year turn-around primarily attributed to sound leadership and coaching. I said it last year and it remains true...NMSU doesn't have an "injury" or "talent" problem...we have a coaching problem. Hal Mumme clearly doesn't hold himself accountable for his failures as our head coach. You cannot lead from the bench (or golf cart as the case may be). Dr Boston: you are accountable to us as well...the local community and alumni of NMSU. You are expected to lead, have vision for the future, make the tough calls, and admit your failures. No surprise to anyone here: you failed on the Mumme gamble (why did you extend that contract?) and owe this community an apology (and a new head coach with leadership as the primary hiring criteria). Your resume reads well Dr Boston; however, your performance in regards to NMSU football (specifically our W-L record and fiscal management) have been a complete an utter failure. We are waiting for YOU to TAKE ACTION.

Did anyone cathch the press conf. highlights? Dumme came off as a pompous a$$! He was talking about how he has a contract and has no worries about his job, etc. KDBC 4 did run a piece on firehalmumme.com so that was good.

"..We ran the ball to try an tire them..."WTF!! You call your offense the "Air Raid" and try to run it when, there has never been a running game in your stint at NMSU?!

"..We knew we couldn't beat them.."I doubt Chris Peterson told his players the same thing when BSU played Oklahoma!!How the heck are you supposed to fire up the troops when the coach has ZERO confidence?!

It bothers me to know Boston sits over there thinking he knows bette than the rest of us. He drives his courtesy Cadillac, talks down to all of us and will not do anything about Mumme. Heck, he gave him an extension for losing while he let two coaches last year dangle in the breeze during the last year of their contracts (baseball and women's basketball). Mumme is his guy and he isn't going to let him go quite yet. Boston will use the excuse of waiting til after the season to evaluate what is going on in the program. Are you kidding me? Our football team played with zero heart against BSU, no fire or direction. That comes from the top. It looks as though Mumme has none of the above either, which also comes from the top and that is Boston. What has Boston done for us around here? He raises ticket prices and doesn't have any real people/communication skills to make us all feel a part of the program. He's go to go too.

Come on Dr. Boston, Mumme must go and after a another losing season, and you should go too. Act now to save your own job. You have stood by this incompetent coach for the last four seasons and watched quietly has Mumme ran the program into the ground with poor coaching, discriminating against muslim players, throwing good players under the bus including RB's like Jeremiah Williams and Justine Buries, and now Tony Glynn. A few players are probably going to jump ship at season end. We have suffered at RB all season for the most part. I hear that a couple of our running backs who left the program last year will probably consider returning to NMSU to play their eligibility out after Mumme is fired. Right now this program is DOA and need a resurrection, but the dead can't raise the dead. Mumme must go!